Whenever chimps go on a rampage, nobody wins. Poor Travis the Chimp was shot to death by a policeman after attacking a friend of his lifelong owner. But that’s not the whole story.

Earlier in the day, Travis annoyed his owner by grabbing her car-keys and trying to drive her car. She tried sedating him with Xanax but he wouldn’t calm down. She called a friend to come over and help. When the friend arrived, Travis went nuts, biting her in the face and hands. The owner was so distressed that she stabbed Travis with a kitchen knife, but that didn’t stop him, so she called 911.

When the cop arrived, Travis went out to the police car and tried to open the door. He loved policemen, apparently. The cop shot Travis several times. Travis fled and managed to retreat to his cage, where he died.

I don’t know who is to blame for any of this shit, but it wasn’t Travis.

26 Responses to “Travis the Chimp: R.I.P.”

This was easily the most horrible thing I’ve heard all day, and it wasn’t a particularly cheerful one to begin with. Was it Monkey Xanax, or was it the owner’s? Drugged, stabbed, and then shot? F*ck! Now I’ll NEVER go to sleep. I don’t even particularly care for monkeys! They remind me too much of people. Damn.

That’s awful! To be honest what the hell was the woman doing with a pet chimp in the first place? It’s a wild animal, even after ‘taming’ and can’t be relied to remain tame, regardless of how old the animal. Poor animal. She should be taking the blame for this. Why didn’t she call animal rescue rather than the bloody police? But to stab the poor thing rather than just lock it in the house and get out of there herself.

Just in case any other silly, sad, rich old women are considering the purchase of a chimpanzee or other exotic surrogate child, husband, rent-boy or whatever it was that the former “owner” of Travis was after: consider the adoption of a human child instead, or give some money to a charity that takes care of chimps, humans, or other beings in need. Most of what’s been written about this case is idiotic beyond belief, and fails to consider or challenge the important subtexts of the story. Why should ANYBODY even consider bringing a chimp into their house, and why should a community have put up with this irresponsible and probably mentally unbalanced woman’s interest in forcing a chimp to behave like a “human”, particularly after the first biting incident? Yes, Travis, when out on his own recognizance a few years ago bit a passerby and local constabulary decided that the matter wasn’t worth pursuing. What kind of sorry-ass excuse for law enforcement did they have in this town..the Sheriff sounds as responsible and responsive as the police chief from the Simpsons. Given that chimps are intelligent beings that share at least 96% of our DNA, do they have rights to what to them is a “normal” life, which includes normal behavior upon becoming sexually mature, i.e. aggressiveness? What kind of sick person assumes that an animal’s sex drive and normal behaviors can be controlled with Xanax…and why the hell would you even want to make this poor thing behave like some sort of diaper-clad church going suburbanite? Jeezus.

That’s just tragic. Regular people should not be allowed to own exotic pets like that! That poor poor chimp. Drugged, stabbed and shot just for being what he is. That lady should be drugged, stabbed and shot!

Here’s a case that happened in my neck of the woods just yesterday, when authorities were called to deal with a serval. Apparently, someone must have illegally owned him, and he escaped. Fortunately, he was captured humanely and will be taken care of at a nature reserve.

ok. someone “adopts” a chimpanzee and names him TRAVIS?? (fast forward to octomom’s story in a couple of years, after doctors refuse to further impregnate her for fears of reputation-questioning doubts)…if the poor animal had this freakout in an environment designed for wild animals to cohabitate with people on a respectful level (ie some biological refuge, or whatever that’s called-you know, where koko lived) , he probably would have been shot w a tranquilizer gun and then treated accordingly. guess what? cops (unfortunately) don’t have tranquilizer guns, so they did what they were trained to do w humans whom they cannot reason with (or crazed wild chimps). so awful. as an animal lover–as it’s apparent we all are–as fun as it seems to have a pet chimp that drinks wine with you, it’s much more humane to leave them in their natural habitat. and, i agree, ignatz, to give money to help fund the preservation of the species in their natural habitat. which is not stamford ct. i feel so awful for this in a way that’s beyond explaining. like why i watched project x incessantly as a teenager and cried my eyes out every. last. time.

This is just another story for the “Only In America” file. What is it about America that makes some people so fukin stupid? It takes in group stupidity (electing GWB, TWICE) to individual stupidity like this story. I just don’t get it.

That was a very sad story..
I think some of our friends here are right,as a matter of fact,
people should not adopt an animal w/c is wild.
It is too dangerous…
Anyway,nice post,hope to see you on mine too..=D

She owned the chimp for 15 years, since he was just a few days old. Not like she randomly decided to get a grown chimp one day. She was married and had a son (husband died in 2004, kid died in car crash) so she treated the chimp like family. Why should the woman be prosecuted for animal abuse?
If your best friends face was being literally bitten and torn off by a raging animal, would you call animal control and ask the chimp nicely to go back in his cage and wait like a good boy? Doubtful.
Adult chimps can rip off the arms of men.

This was bullshit. He probably felt threatened and was protecting his owner…he was only doing what he would in the wild where he belongs. Ehhh people are soo stupid sometimes..i do feel bad for that woman but this wouldnt have happened if she had just gotten a dog or something that wasnt wild….. you cant expect they will hold that in forever!

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